Improvement in railway-cars



J. A. s. SIMQNSON. Y Railway-Car. No. 203,661.' Patenfedmay14,1878.

N.PETERS. PHOTC-LITMOGRAF'NER. WASHINGTON, D C.

. pediment to free ingress UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. f

JACOB lS. SIMONSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification forming part' of Letters Patent No. 203,661, dated May 14, 1878 application led March 13, 1878.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB' A. S. SnvioNsoN,

of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and Statev passenger-cars for city or street railways. lts

object is to make cars easily convertible from open into closed cars, and vice versa, as may be desirable according to the requirements of the weather; and it consists in a novel and simple yet substantial means of inclosing the. cars at their sides, which offers no serious imand egress, and whereby, when a car is closed, it is rendered perfectly weather-proof, and, when it is open, a free circulation of air transversely through them from top to bottom is provided for.

The invention is capable of application by its addition to most of the open cars at present in use to make them convertible into `closed cars, so that they may be used in winter aswell asin summer only, as at present constructed.

Figure l in mithe drawing is a side view, partly in section, of a part of the body of a railway car 'illustrating my invention, the doors being shownopen. Fig. 2 is a side view of a portion of the same with the doors of one compartment closed. Fig. 3 is' a transverse vertical section of one side of the car. Fig. 4. is a horizontal section of a part of the body.

In carrying out my invention, I either take the body of an ordinary open car 'composed of a floor, A, posts B, and a roof, O, and divide it into compartments by the posts B and seats extending across between two of the said posts on opposite sides of the car, or I construct a body of substantially similar parts. This body forms the frame-work to which my invention is to be applied for the purpose of `rendering the car convertible into an open or a closed one, at pleasure, without, removing or detaching any of its parts, my invention being all embraced in a novel system of sliding doors and their attachments and appurtenances applied to the sides of the car.

D D and E E are the sliding doors, which serve to inclose the sides of the car, the said doors consisting of two series-viz., an inner series and an outer one. series, D, are arranged to pass close to the outer sides of the posts B, and those.of the' inner series, E, are arranged to pass close to the exteriors of those of the inner series D. Guides el d are provided 011 the iioor and on the roofframe for the inner series or" doors D, and similar guides c e are similarly provided for the outer series of doors E. Each door is of a width a little greater than half the width of the space include-d in one compartment from the center of one post to the center of the next l on the same side of the car, that two of the doors E E of the outer series may combine to close one of the compartments, and two of the doors D D of the inner series may combine to close the next compartment, and that when the compartments are closed each of the v doors E E of the outer series may overlap the edge of one of the doors of the inner series, which serves to close the next compartment.

The two; series of doors thus constructed and applied will serve to completely close one side of the car. They may be supported on rollers at their bottoms, or suspended by rollers at the top.

It may be well here to mention that only one door may be necessary for the compartments next the ends of the car when that compartment is a narrow one containing only one seat.

The several doors E E have each applied to them at the top and bottom two springs, a a, of india-rubber or coiled wire, which may be let into grooves in theedges of the door, and one of which connects the door with theiioorframe of the car, and the other with the roofframe or cap, in such manner that when the door is unfastened the said springs will automatically pull it open, and when it is open will hold it against stops o o provided on the floor and roof frames, in a position with the center of its width opposite the center of one `of the posts B, as shown in Fig. 1. The several doors D D have similar springs b b ap- `Those of the outer door of each of those compartments will be.

exactly opposite to one of the next, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, and hence the two will only occupy a space lengthwise of the car equal to the width of one door, and therefore very little ,l obstruction will be presented by the several doors to the ingress'and egress of passen gers to and from the compartments.

In order to provide an increased width of the space between the open doors for the ingress and egress of the passen gers, instead of making the doors solid all the way up theiry abutting edges, I make a portion of each door at the edge which abuts against the next door in closing the compartment of a separate piece, f, which may extend -the whole or any portion of the height of the door, though in Figs. l and 2 of the drawing they are shown as onlyy extending a portion of the height where the body of the passenger passes. This piece f, made of a strip of wood or other material, is fitted into the door with a mortise and tenen, as shown in Fig. 4, or otherwise, in a suitable manner to slide in and out in a direction'lengthwise of the car without leaving any opening between the said piece and its respective door, which 'is cut away or otherwise reduced in width Ito receive the saidl piece; but when the said piece is moved inward, relatively to the door, it makes the door or that portion thereof where it is'applied so much narrower. By making this strip f to slide inward a distance of two inches, the space left between the two open doors of a compartment for ingress and egress of passengers maybe made four inches wider than if the doors were solid. The said strips may have springs applied to them to draw them into the doors as soon as the doors are released by turning or otherwise liberating their fastenings.A The fastenings or catches k of the doors should ypreferably be applied to these strips, in which case the two strips of the pair of doors of a compartment will be held together when the doors are closed and fastened, and when the fastening or catch is undone the strips will be pulled in by their springs While the doors are being opened by their springs a a or b b, so that all that has to be-done to provide for the ingress or egress ofpassengers is to undo the fastening, and the doors will be at once opened automatically to the fullest width. The handles for closing the doors may be attached to the said strips f, so that by the act of closin g the doors the said strips will be pulled outward.

In order to provide, without making the doors unnecessarily heavy, for preventing their liability to be sprung outward by passengers pulling on them or'their handles in getting into the car, a slide-connection, g h, is provided, as shownin Figs. l and 3, between each inner door D and its adjacent post B, or seat-frame, to sustain the door at a distance from its top and bottom, and a similar connection, i j, is provided, as shown in Figs. l, 2, and 3, between each inner door D and its adiacent outer door. These slide-connections are represented as formed of matched rabbeted plates; but they may be composed of slotted plates and T-headed bolts workin g in the slots of the plates, or in any other way that will confine the inner door to the post and the outer door to the inner one, without interfering with their sliding action.

I claimv 1. Ina railway-car transversely divided into compartments, and having the sides of said compartments composed of sliding doors, theconstruction and arrangement of the slidingv 'doors of two adjacent compartments, to slide one within and one outside of the other, substantially as herein described.

2. The combination, in a railway-car transversely divided into compartments, of sliding doors for closing the said compartments at the sides of the car, latchesor fastenings for securing the said doors when closed, and springs for opening` the said doors automatically when the catches or fastenings are released, substantially as herein described.

3. In combination with the sliding doors, the movable pieces ff applied to the edges of the said doors, substantially as described, to serve as a means of closing the said doors and of widening the opening thereof, as herein set forth. l Y

4. The combination, with two sliding railway-car doors, arranged-to slide one inside and one outside the other, of a slide-connection, ij, between the said doors, at a distance from the top and bottom thereof, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

5. The combination, with the sliding door and framing or body ofl a railway-car, of a sliding connection, g h, between the said door and framing or body, at a distance from the top and bottom of the said door, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

J. A. S. SIMON SON.

Witnesses:

BENJAMIN W. HOFFMAN, FRED. HAYNEs. 

